If he was so far back, why even draft him at all? Let him develop in the WAFL for two years and then see where he’s at.
Good players, regardless of background, size or anything else will generally develop quickly, play early and play often when put into an elite, professional environment. There are exceptions but they are just that, exceptions and list management strategy should not be built around catering to those exceptions.
Because he had elite physical characteristics. You don't want to be trying to draft someone and losing out to other clubs, if you thought they had AFL potential.
We were drafting towards the back end of each round, given our on field success. To try stay competitive, you have to find some diamonds in the rough, because you don't have access to elite juniors.
His development was slowed by covid. He's the exact type of player that needed games to consolidate his off field coaching, given the low base to begin with.
This is exactly the type of player we should be taking, rather than keep plods around. Miller showed potential at the back end of last year. He played with growing confidence, the graph was going up. If he tapers this year, or regresses, his career is over. But this forum is looking for heads because we've started the year in such crap form. It's amazing how players like Castagna looked sub VFL standard when the team was playing awful. But then a few years later, we couldn’t function without him.
Calm heads are required now. This is still largely the same club that got cheated out of an elimination final last year. All these players couldn’t have just turned to be "Duds" in 6 months.
